Detailed Explanation of the Scenting Process for Jasmine Tea

Scented tea is a unique tea category in China, made by scenting tea with fragrant flowers that are either delicately fresh and aromatic or richly sweet-scented. The produced varieties include jasmine tea, magnolia tea, Zhulan tea, bitter orange flower tea, and pomelo flower tea. Among them, jasmine tea is best in quality, largest in quantity, and sells best. According to statistics, it accounts for about 70% of the total scented tea nationwide. To improve the quality of jasmine tea, the relevant scenting techniques are introduced below.

1 Grasp the timing of flower picking

Jasmine [Jasminum sambac (L.) Aiton] is a typical effusive-flowering plant, with the strongest fragrance when it has just opened. Therefore, when picking jasmine flowers, the best choice is buds that are mature, ready to open, and pure white and plump. However, immature green buds or flowers that have already opened should not be picked, because their aromatic oils have not yet fully formed or have already volatilized. In addition, the weather conditions at the time of picking should also be considered. This is because flowers picked in sunny, high-temperature weather have a pure, lasting fragrance and excellent quality, while flowers that open in overcast and rainy weather have a weak fragrance and poorer quality. Therefore, picking in the sunny afternoon and early evening is most ideal.

2 Pay attention to the care of fresh flowers

Freshly picked jasmine flowers have a high water content and should be promptly spread out in a clean, cool, and well-ventilated place. The spreading thickness must not exceed 10 cm, and the flowers must never be squeezed or exposed to direct sunlight. Before scenting, the flower bases, flower stems, green buds, diseased or insect-damaged buds, and foreign matter should be removed.

3 Grasp the key points of scenting

Before scenting, the tea leaves should be thoroughly dried to enhance their capacity to absorb the floral fragrance. To improve the aroma, 2 to 3 hours before scenting with jasmine, about 0.5 kg of magnolia flowers should be added per 50 kg of tea base for a base scenting. When 80% of the flowers have just opened, scenting begins. During scenting, the jasmine flowers are spread in layers over the tea base, then mixed evenly, and either box-scented or bin-scented according to the grade of the tea base. Whether box-scented or bin-scented, a portion of the tea base should be reserved for covering after the scenting mixture is combined, in order to reduce the loss of floral fragrance. Grades above three use box scenting, while grades below three may use bin scenting. After scenting for 4 to 5 hours, when the temperature of the tea base rises to 40-50 degrees C and the fresh flowers begin to wilt, the pile should be turned promptly to release heat. Then the pile is gathered again and scenting continues for 5 to 6 hours. When the temperature of the tea base rises again to 40 degrees C and the flowers have wilted, the flowers can be separated out, using a shaking sieve to separate the tea from the flowers. Because during the scenting process the tea base absorbs both fragrance and moisture, after separating the flowers it must be quickly re-fired to bake off excess moisture. To reduce the loss of fragrance, after re-firing the moisture content of the scented tea should be increased by 0.5% to 1%. Low-grade scented tea is scented only once, while high-grade scented tea must be repeatedly scented 2 to 3 times (for tea above grade two), with 16 to 10 kg of flowers added per 50 kg of tea base for each scenting. The method of repeated scenting is the same as the first scenting, except that the amount of flowers added gradually decreases. Whether it is scented once or multiple times, to improve the freshness and liveliness of the scented tea, it must undergo a final scenting process. The amount of flowers used in the final scenting should be controlled at less than 4 kg per dan of tea, because after the final scenting the tea base is not re-fired. If too many flowers are used, the tea base will absorb more water than the specified standard, which can easily cause the tea to become moldy and deteriorate.